HOUSTON, TEXAS -- The No. 3 USC men's tennis team was a force to reckon with today in the Round of 16 at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Houston. The Trojans came to play, taking out No. 14 Tennessee with a 4-1 win clinched by freshman Connor Farren at the No. 4 singles spot. Now 5-0 overall, the Trojans move on to tomorrow's quarterfinals, where USC will face either Texas A&M or Baylor at 3 p.m. CT at the Galleria Tennis and Athletic Club.

USC's first leg up in today's Round of 16 match came in doubles play as the Trojans rolled to the first point with relatively quick wins on courts two and three. At the No. 3 spot, USC's Max de Vroome and Eric Johnson got the ball rolling with a 6-2 win over Dromsky/Kerner. Clinching the first point of the match for the Trojans was Connor Farren and Roberto Quiroz at No. 2 with their swift 6-3 win over Chaplin/Fickey. That left a battle on court one suspended at a 5-5 lockup between USC's #35 Yannick Hanfmann and Ray Sarmiento and Tennessee's top-ranked Libietis/Reese.

The Vols tried to make things interesting in taking an early point in singles on #17 Hunter Reese's win over USC's #16 Yannick Hanfmann, but the Trojans had Hanfmann's back. USC peppered Tennessee with a string of wins to power to victory. At the No. 6 slot, senior Michael Grant rang up a 6-4, 6-1 win over Markus Kerner to launch the Trojans back ahead, up 2-1 with two more Trojans closing quickly on victory.

At the top spot, USC's #7 senior Ray Sarmiento fended off #45 Mikelis Libietis in a second-set tiebreaker for a 6-1, 6-5 (3) win that put USC on the brink, up 3-1. Freshman Connor Farren was the clincher. He'd stay the course against Tennessee's Jarryd Chaplin for a 6-2, 6-4 finish that rolled USC to a 4-1 win and on to tomorrow's quarterfinal round.